This invention relates to a tooth replacement and more particularly to a method and apparatus for making a tooth and inserting the tooth into the mouth where the tooth is a substantially exact duplicate of the tooth it replaces.
All animals suffer from tooth decay or problems with teeth. Whether the animal is a domestic or wild animal, or human animal; tooth problems exist. From the human side of tooth problems, research indicates that even the caveman did not escape tooth problems. As is well-known, tooth problems continue to this day.
Standard dentistry procedures for correcting tooth problems are very well known. Decay can be drilled away and replaced, so that the tooth is filled to substantially its original by suitable materials. It is also feasible to replace entire groups of teeth with denture plates. These standard dentistry procedures have their limitations.
A tooth can be filled only so often without being destroyed. If the tooth breaks beyond filling, a customary procedure is to put in a crown using the natural root of the tooth already implanted as a base for that crown. However, even crowns do not always work, because a sufficient amount of tooth may not remain to secure a crown in place. If the crown does not work, a complete or partial bridge is necessary. Such procedures are complicated and expensive.
Yet, the full number of teeth in the mouth is desirable for aesthetic reasons and health reasons as well. Gaps in the mouth, where an extracted tooth or teeth use to be, are customarily filled by the other teeth moving out of position into those gaps. Such tooth movement causes a great number of problems. The movement of the other teeth into the gap caused by the pulled tooth can affect the bite and cause other physical problems, as well as adversely affect the aesthetic appearance of the person.
Mounting of caps or bridges to solve these aesthetic or physical problems--whether partial bridges or full bridges--becomes very difficult. The mounting must be secured in the mouth in some fashion. No artificial mounting replaces the mounting of the regular jaw. The support of the tooth in the regular jaw support is clearly the best method of mounting the teeth in jaw.
Attempts to solve these problems by implanting artificial teeth must overcome major problems. One of the major problems of implanting artificial teeth in the body is to overcome phenomenon of rejection. This phenomenon is a natural defense of the body. The human body utilizies two major lines of defense. If elements in the body encounter a foreign object, elements in the body try to destroy that object. For example, when white cells encounter bacteria in the blood, the white cells try to devour the bacteria. If that fails, the body tries to eject that material from the body. So whenever foreign objects are planted in the body, the body must be convinced that this is an acceptable addition to the body. This occurs with regard to artificial valves for the heart or pacemakers, or any other artificial substance that is implanted in the body.
It thus becomes clear that it is highly desirable to avoid gaps left by pulled teeth while at the same time providing for a desirable method of replacing the gaps.